An Orland Park man pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of hijacking and battery for his alleged role in a motor vehicle theft involving an elderly woman.

Tinley Park police said Michael J. Kroll, 23, of the 9100 block Brookside Court, and another man, approached a women in her 90s outside the Dollar Tree on Harlem Avenue on Nov. 30, 2011, asking for directions.

The duo then allegedly threatened to shoot her — though they didn’t show a gun — and escaped with her car and her purse. She escaped with minor cuts on her hands after being tossed out of her 1999 Oldsmobile Cutlass, police said.

While another suspect remains at large, Kroll has been indicted on the charges of aggravated vehicular hijacking, vehicular hijacking, possession of stolen vehicle, and four counts of aggravated battery.

Kroll was given an eight-week break before the next pretrial hearing. Assistant public defender Thomas Stovall said his client was looking to spend the time in a law library, which Stateville Correctional Center — where he would have been sent back on a shorter return date — does not possess.

Though reluctant, Judge Colleen Ann Hyland’s decision allowing Kroll to be sent to county jail was made after a prosecutor said the state still needed to gather a “significant” amount of evidence. She promised not to take such a long break in the case again to accommodate the defense's choice of prison.

Kroll returns to court on March 21.

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